Aila
To be fair, it's really more like Aila and Wampa go to the camp that Zander's already been going to. But nevertheless...our little baby girl play played among other little people her age! Not an IV pole nor a child life specialist in sight! She played Ring Around the Rosey and freeze tag and parachute and play-doh, and (according to Wampa) she held her own, hanging back when there were games involving too much running, since she's still very unsteady during quick movement. A little camp never hurt a Wampa, and after about an hour of sitting on Wampa's lap, Aila ran off with the other kids. So he came home with a detailed report of a happy morning, and we breathed a sigh of relief. She had refused camp on Monday morning for reasons that she couldn't articulate. After Zander reported having Monday fun, she tentatively agreed to get up and go on Tuesday morning, but became unruly and obstreperous when she woke up today. "I no wanna go to camp! NO! No No No!" We decided for her, whisking her from the bed and into the car seat, hoping that she would eventually settle down. Later tonight, after we returned from work, she told us that she had had a good time and that she "liked Zander's friends." Since she's been in relative isolation for so long, she assumes that all other little kids must be friends of Zander's, since she knows that she has had little opportunity to make many of her own.
I've been tempted to take a video tonight but I'm too afraid that the kids in Aila's future 7th-grade class will somehow get ahold of it one day (middle school girls are so mean). When she finally fell asleep last night, it was nearly 1:30 in the morning. We could tell something not good was going on in her little body again. After her eyes closed and she slept, the evidence only mounted: dark, sallow eyes, rapid pulse, and in the later hours of the morning, her characteristic moans as she slept curled next to me. She finally awoke at nearly 1pm with a fever of about 99.5 degrees, saying that her belly hurt and her leg hurt and looking paler than she has in a while. We gave her oxy for the pain and later ativan for the nausea, but there were really only very brief periods throughout the entire day when she wasn't crying, yelling, or moaning. Brian and I stayed with her the entire day, and we thankfully had some help to entertain Zander and Declan. Zander went over to my father's at about 6pm, allowing Brian and I to wrangle Aila into a bath and calm her as best we could. She calmed enough by about 8:30pm for us to pack her and Declan into the stroller and take a walk through downtown Redwood City on the way to get Zander from my father's apartment.
In the past month, we've enjoyed a visit from our good friend Kathryn, who just finished her first year of graduate school in Iowa. The kids love her, and she plays with them better than almost anyone we know.
Life has been happening. We have been trying to live it which has led to spending less time writing about it. Living it is very, very challenging, with leukemia hanging in the wings. Nevertheless, it is our goal.
There have been surprisingly few cancer-related calamities lately. So few that in an upcoming post, I may be tempted to write about the humdrum of regular old life with three kids and two careers. Before that, probably, a post or two about all the help and good will that comes our way every day.